Making a success of mentoring
Creating a successful mentoring programme in organisations involves thoughtful planning, clear goals, and ongoing support for both mentors and mentees.
I think that is something that organisations can sometimes forget. Mentoring is seen as such an easy common developmental process, one that we are all familiar with, that organisations often introduce mentoring and then just leave it to succeed (or fail) on its own.
When that happens, mentoring usually fizzles out, without achieving much, but, even worse, can leave a bad taste in staff’s minds, “they tried that before and it didn’t work”, or “I signed up for that scheme but nothing came of it”.
I’ve recently been working with a range of organisations supporting their mentoring programmes, from innovative reverse mentoring schemes to more traditional mentoring programmes.
Here are my five top tips to help make your mentoring programmes more impactful:
1. Define Clear Objectives and Goals
Start by clarifying what you want to achieve from the mentoring programme and where the focus will be. Anyone who has worked with me knows one of my first questions is always, ‘What do you want to achieve from this?” By setting measurable goals, you create a framework that both mentors and mentees can align with.
2. Ensure Effective Matching
Successful mentorship depends heavily on good mentor-mentee matches. Consider factors like career aspirations, skill sets, and experiences. Take time over this, it is the bedrock of a successful mentoring programme. And, just as in coaching, a chemistry meeting between mentor and mentee is really useful, as is the flexibility to re-match if the initial pairing doesn’t work out.
3. Provide Training and Resources
Equip mentors with the tools and training they need, such as relationship building, active listening, and coaching techniques. Mentees benefit from training as well, helping them to understand their role as a mentee and the responsibilities that go with it. And offer ongoing support and resources like structured meeting templates, checklists, and conversation starters to keep momentum and focus – no one likes to much paperwork, but a little bit of paperwork can really make the difference.
4. Encourage Regular Check-ins and Support
Schedule consistent check-ins with mentors and mentees to assess progress, troubleshoot issues, and ensure the partnership stays active. We’ve got used to the idea of supervision for coaches, it is really useful for mentees as well- building their skills, helping them to recognise and deal with any ethical issues or power dynamic issues that may arise, and really helps to embed mentoring in an organisation and building a community of practice.
5. Celebrate Achievements and Gather Feedback
Collect feedback from participants throughout and after the programme to identify areas for improvement, adapting the programme to keep it relevant and effective. Nothing is static, and yet I know organisations who are using the same schemes, the same paperwork and the same approaches. And recognise and celebrate the success stories of mentorship pairs, reinforcing the value of the programme, motivating others and helping to build and embed the ethos of mentoring. Nothing brings people to programmes more than the positive feedback of their peers!
If you want support with your mentoring programme, get in touch and find out how we can help you.